Language Barrier
by JustADreamAway735
Summary: "He hadn't touched the language in over two years, and speaking it felt like rolling thick marbles over his tongue." Falling for a stranger isn't easy, especially when it's a few days before a scheduled leave and there isn't a common tongue. And even with his efforts...well, at least the boy tried.


_**A/N: My very, very first Hiccunzel, of which I am very proud :) Enjoy! (Posted originally to my tumblr)**_

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This time, this time he would speak with her.

For the past week, he sat at the same table with one cup of coffee and waited there, watching as she went about her shift. Sure, she had progressed from obliviousness to politeness to _maybe _smiling when he was being a goofball (which was probably her form of pity), but that was the extent of their relationship. If Hiccup didn't act soon, that was all their relationship was going to be.

From the moment a few days ago where he first bought _un café _from the little store, when her delicate hands brushed his to give the change and her owlish eyes blinked in his direction, Hiccup knew he had to go there every single day until the end of the student trip.

Every new day he spent in there, he found another reason to fall in love with her. The times when he saw her giggle, read the translated version of Harry Potter, give an old woman tea for free, and play around with a small child of one of the customers; all of those moments were pushing him closer and closer to falling.

Yes, he knew it was stupid, and she'd most likely think him crazy….but the best things started out a little crazy, right?

It was just a shame that he only had a week until he had to go back home.

It was an even bigger shame that she didn't speak any English.

"Alright," he muttered, stirring the contents of the cup. "French skills from sophomore year, don't fail me now."

She came over, presumably to clean up the nearby table, when he called her over.

"Uhh…Mademoiselle? Sea-view-play?" He hadn't touched the language in over two years, and speaking it felt like rolling thick marbles over his tongue.

Luckily for him she came over, smiling amusedly at his attempts at French, and raised her eyebrows. _"Oui, monsieur? Qu'est-ce que vous avez besoin?"_

She said it so rapidly that it took him a bit to unravel the question and find a suitable answer. After several moments passed , some semblance of a phrase stumbled out. "Uhh…I…J-Je voudrais vous raconter que…vous êtes beau."

Her eyebrows were knitted and she took a step backwards. _"Excusez-moi, monsieur?"_

Memories of Madame Brut smacking her yard stick on the oak desk snapped into his mind, along with her harsh voice scolding to '_make ze adjecteeves agree wit ze subjects, Monsieur 'addock'. _Thinking about it now, 'beau'….was a description for males.

"Non…non! Mademoiselle! Belle! Vous êtes belle! Très belle!" He waved his hands widly out in front of him, as if the swings would somehow piece back his broken chances. Her eyes now looked sprinkled with fright, and he could see that she was starting to back away.

_"Monsieur, vous me faites peur!" _

He could tell that he was scaring her, so he rested his hands; this seemed to calm her down, as she stopped shuffling away from him. Now was the moment of truth: he could screw up the rest of his chances, or he could take the first step towards something amazing.

Hiccup reached into the very deepest corners of his memory and brought out the very best speech he could think of. Ignoring the pounding in his heart and the cold sweat in his palms, he cleared his throat and said, "Mademoiselle….votre longue chevelure blonde brille comme…comme de l'huile. Tes yeux sont des lampes lumineuses."

She blinked a few times before shaking her head and walking away, muttering, _"Américains…" _

"Wait! Wai-Hold on a sec, please!" He ran out in front of her, effectively blocking her way to the counter. "Please, listen-_écoutez-_for a few minutes. S'il vous plaîtes."

She crossed her arms under her chest, cocking an eyebrow up to tell him to proceed. She had hooks dug into her mouth that held her warm smile back. Hiccup was sure that with a little bit of prodding and convincing, the clasps would let go.

He cleared his throat and, with some awkward hand gestures, explained,"Ces derniers jours, je vous ai regardé-c'est fou, je sais-mais je…je pense que vous êtes belle, intelligente, et sympa."

The velcro in her smile loosened. Just a bit.

A strong hand whipped him sharply to his left, bringing him face-to-face with a pair of glaring icy blue eyes and snowy white hair. The new (very much taller and intimidating-looking) stranger gave him a quick up-down before asking to the girl in an extremely clipped tone, _"Qui est-il, et pourquoi parlez-vous de lui?" _

_"Pourquoi est-ce important?" _Her stance was extremely terse, her jaw clenched and her stony eyes alight with a sudden surge of fire. _"Tu n'es pas mon petit ami plus, Jacque. Tu ne peux pas me contrôler!" _

Hiccup saw the muscles in the Jacque guy tense up, and he was a bit afraid that he'd reach out and slap the girl right across her face. Instead, a small painful whimper escaped his lips as Jacque's hold on him intensified.

The two of them exchanged a rather heated conversation in (what Hiccup assumed was very angry, curse-filled) French. While Hiccup still cared for the girl he knew next-to-nothing about, he was hoping that this wouldn't result in him getting mugged in some side alley by a mime. He picked up some of their phrases here and there, the most notable ones being _'petit ami' _and '_américains'. _He definitely passed enough of the course to know what the latter meant, but the former's translation was lost on him.

But he just knew that whatever it meant, it couldn't be good.

Finally, after a long, terse staring contest between the two of them, Jacque spun on his heel to face Hiccup once again. He backed him up into the counter, finger dug deeply into Hiccup's chest. In a heavy accented, Jacque threatened, "I 'ave my eye on you."

He walked out of the _café_, leaving Hiccup stunned and the girl with a deeply rueful look on her face. She took his hand, loosened the hooks holding her smile, and apologized. Surprisingly, she said it slightly accented, yet very fluent English.

"I am very sorry about him, _monsieur. _I see him pass by usually, but I did not know that he would enter today."

Hiccup, blinking a few times from the utter shock of the last fifteen minutes, shrugged and curled his lips in a half-smile. "It's okay, it wasn't your-Wait, how are you suddenly speaking perfect English?"

She rolled her eyes good-naturedely. "Just because I didn't before doesn't mean that I can't. It's actually my third language, though, after Spanish."

Dang, as if there wasn't already fifty million reasons to fall for her. "Oh. So, anyways, who was that guy anyways? Cuz I think from the bruises in my shoulder, I don't think he really took a shine to me."

"My old boyfriend. We broke up last month, but I guess neither of us are completely over it-"

"Oh God, I'm really sorry! I…If I knew that _that _happened recently, I wouldn't have bugged you-really, I'm sorry and-"

"It's fine." She shushed him by placing her hand lightly on his chest, right over his heart. "Truly, I wasn't bothered by you; I was actually very flattered. But then my old boyfriend just had to come in and ruin it, pushing you around and reminding me of the past."

Hiccup took her hand in his comfortingly, asking, "What happened in the past?"

She visibly winced, tucking her her bottom lip underneath her top set of teeth. "The two of us used to have a friend, _Eugène, _whom we grew up with. We were best friends, and I even dated him for a while. But…one day, he got up and went to America without as much as a goodbye." She gave him a rueful smile, saying, "And now, I guess that's why Jacque is a little bit sour with _américains." _

"I'm really sorry to hear that, especially since you cared for him." Hiccup reached up to stroke her cheek lightly, moving down across her skin until his hand rested upon her shoulder. "Not all Americans are like that, though. Sure, a hell of a lot of us are, but not all of us fit into the mold. I can promise you that I won't be like that.

"I mean, I know that I was being really weird earlier and that it'd only make sense if you put a restraining order on me-I know that I'd do that if _I _were you-but do you think, maybe….you can give me a chance?"

She waited. And waited. And waited, and _man, _she really seemed to want to milk the time before answering when slowly, the last hook on her smile was let go. "Sure."

"Oh, okay. I'll be gone in a few days anyways so I completely understand why you'd-wait…what did you say?"

She giggled and repeated her answer, this time with more conviction. "Yes, I will give you a chance, you strange boy!" Hiccup was close to releasing the bubbles inside of him when she interrupted, grinning impishly. "We're going to have to work on your French first, though."

"D'accord. But you gotta admit, my skills are pretty good so far, _oui?"_

_"Oui."_

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_**A/N: Disclaimer, I may be going into AP French this year, but even I'm not sure if that French is 100% correct. Well, I hope I did this ship some justice, it holds a very lovely section of my heart :) Hope you enjoyed it! **_

_**Until next time**_

_**-(insert real name here)**_


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